When You Have Nothing Left to Lose
by EliPot
Summary: "... You raise hell." She spoke words of ice as she struggled to stand. Broken body and withered form seemed to look so majestic in the dusk's burning gaze, her eyes alight with her swan song. She was the lone survivor; the last one standing. Dull blades rested in her hands and glinted with the promise of the end and she took flight.


She was rather eccentric, she knew that, but she considered herself just a little too weird to ever truly become close to anyone. Until she met them. They accepted her strengths and her faults, helping her grow from a stupid child into a soldier. Through her life, they had slowly opened up her cage and let her wings stretch, although she was reluctant to leave the safety of the metal confines of her heart. Her cowardice had given them something to work with-something to get to know her with. They could always get a reaction from her at the mention of a challenge; they knew she hated being a coward. And so they pried her open, forced her to fly lest she fall to the ground in an ungraceful heap of flesh. She fit it with them like a glove, and when one of them had died on their graduation day, she kept her tears hidden so she could act as a stronghold for the others. but they knew her and let her cry into them when everyone else had gone to sleep. She decided to stop being a coward for once and try to become someone reliable, although she had unknowingly already done just that so long ago for the other two.

Three years into her life in the Legion had changed her. From becoming a rebel to getting her friend into power to becoming a high ranking member of the military, she had grown to give others courage from the background. She etched fate into wood and then burned it with her risky movements to keep her friends alive. Barbaric were her ways, but she grew and sharpened them so she would no longer be that bumbling ugly duckling, but that of a graceful, beautiful swan. With her experience and forever growing knowledge, she became known as one of the most stubborn soldiers the Legion had ever seen. With speed and precision, she would cut down titans with grace. She was a swan of the military, one of humanity's best. And with time, her friends had come to trust her with lives that were not under her command as she did the same.

But it came to a quick end when their strongest went down and their hope went missing. Having lost most of her circle so long ago, the two she had come to see as family were her top priority among others. They were all she had left in such a place. She just hoped her father would forgive her once he had heard the eventual news. Back when she was still a cadet, she had heard some of her superiors talking over a pint. She remembered the words clear as crystal, as if they were a prophecy. And prophecy they became when the time had come. Right now, everyone was gone. Her squad, her friends, her life. so when the words came to her, she spoke out loud with blood-soaked emotions.

_ "In this kind of life, most of us don't live for very long. Titans pretty much make sure __of that..."_ She recalled. It was true. Legion soldiers never really did live long. _"However, I find that just sitting back and waiting for eventual slaughter is just playing into their hands."_

_ "I don't want to die without knowing that I had at least put up a fight, no matter how small it may have been. I don't care if no one else does."_ Her father's face passed through her mind. _"My will is what gives me the courage to keep going. And knowing that, even though they scare me shitless, titans are our key to the outside world. So when you have nothing left to lose,..."_

"... You raise hell." She spoke words of ice as she struggled to stand. Broken body and withered form seemed to look so majestic in the dusk's burning gaze, her eyes alight with her swan song. She was the lone survivor; the last one standing. Dull blades rested in her hands and glinted with the promise of the end and she took flight.

_**On July 28, 854, Sasha Braus perished. Cause of death: blood loss; Rank: Captain; Title: Swan of the Legion.**_


End file.
